Labour ministry initiates steps to draft Labour codes proposed in Budget 2019

Source: timesnownews.com

New Delhi: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her maiden Budget speech announced Labour law reforms. Ministry of Labour and Employment has taken steps for drafting four Labour Codes on Wages; Industrial Relations; Social Security; and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions respectively, by simplifying, amalgamating and rationalizing the relevant provisions of the existing Central Labour Laws. 

FM Sitharaman announced that the government has proposed streamlining multiple labour laws into a set of four labour codes to ensure that the process of registration and filing of returns gets standardised. In the Budget speech on Friday, she said, “This will ensure that process of registration and filing of returns will get standardised and streamlined. With various labour related definitions getting standardised, it is expected that there shall be less disputes.”

It may be noted that the four Labour Codes contain provisions relating to wage, social security, safety, health and grievance redressal mechanism for workers. These initiatives are expected to provide wage security, social security, occupational safety and decent working conditions to the workers. However, there is no proposal at present to dismantle and merge of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) with other central schemes and privatization of social security fund.

As per a ministry release, the process of legislative reforms on Labour includes consultation with stakeholders including Central Trade Unions (CTUs), employers’ associations and state governments in the form of tripartite consultation. Besides, the draft Labour Codes were also placed on the website of the ministry, seeking comments/suggestions from all stakeholders including the general public. The draft legislations are finalised after considering comments/suggestions received from various stakeholders.

The proposed labour reforms initiatives will reduce the complexity in compliance due to the multiplicity of labour laws and facilitate setting up of enterprises and thus creating the environment for the development of business and industry in the country and generating employment opportunities without diluting basic aspects of safety, security and health of workers.

It is worth mentioning that the the key highlights of the Union Budget 2019-20 include government’s intention to invest Rs 100 lakh crore in infrastructure in next 5 years, enhanced target of over one lakh 5,000 crore of disinvestment in 2019-20, proposal to provide Rs 70,000 crore to PSBs to boost credit, doubling of food security budget in last 5 years, faster adoption of electric vehicles with an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore, development of 17 iconic tourism sites into world-class tourist destinations and issuance of new series of coins of 1,2,5,10 and 20 rupees, etc.